Brain-damaged man starts talking after decade nearly mute

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Nearly 9 1/2 years after a firefighter was left brain-damaged and mostly mute during a 1995 roof collapse, he did something that shocked his family and doctors: He asked for his wife.

Staff members of the suburban Buffalo nursing home where Donald Herbert has lived for more than seven years raced to get Linda Herbert on the telephone.

"I want to talk to my wife," Herbert was quoted as saying. A staff member called his wife, but it was his youngest son, Nicholas, 13, who picked up the phone and began speaking.

"That can't be," Herbert said. "He's just a baby. He can't talk."

It was the first of many conversations the patient had with his wife, four sons and other family and friends Saturday during a 14-hour stretch, Herbert's uncle Simon Manka said.

"How long have I been away?" Herbert asked.

"We told him almost 10 years," the uncle said. "He thought it was only three months."

Herbert, who will turn 44 Saturday, was fighting a house fire on Dec. 29, 1995, when the roof collapsed, burying him under debris. After going without air for several minutes, Herbert was comatose for 2 1/2 months and has undergone therapy ever since.

Brings Terri Schiavo to mind. This firefighter wasn't supposed to recover from his injuries. I read that her condition was different, but still one wonders. Where there is life there is hope. Not trying to open an old wound, just voice a thought.

I am sure his family is celebrating this wonderful accomplishment with joy and song. If he were my dad, I would be feeling awe-struck. I hope his condition continues to improve even more. I hope he retains his condition unlike the police officer they mentioned that only "awoke' for 18 hours.

That's great, but it must be awful to wake up and find yourself ten years older!

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That's what happens when you turn thirty, the realisation that ten years have past and it feels like you should still be in your early twenties. That's why your thirtieth birthday will be your worst birthday probably until you hit forty, at which point I imagine it will be the same horror just less surprising.

That's what happens when you turn thirty, the realisation that ten years have past and it feels like you should still be in your early twenties. That's why your thirtieth birthday will be your worst birthday probably until you hit forty, at which point I imagine it will be the same horror just less surprising.

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Actually more surprising at 40, scared to feel the effects at 50 but don't want to experience the alternative yet.

Brings Terri Schiavo to mind. This firefighter wasn't supposed to recover from his injuries. I read that her condition was different, but still one wonders. Where there is life there is hope. Not trying to open an old wound, just voice a thought.

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I think a lot of people are thinking this too, "i was on the wrong side! they really can wake up!" but no, the conditions they were in are way too different. His brain was intact but uh, "scrambled" for lack of a better word. Always will be, his waking/coma state notwithstanding. But he's always had the chance for improvement, because his body kept his brain well-nourished and alive (indeed, i hope he continues to recover, perhaps he'll get to a constant low-functioning state) By contrast, Terri Shiavo's body allowed her brain to, basically, decompose inside her head, by the time she died most of her brain was liquid, there was simply no tissue there. The sodium, potassium, and calcium electrical circuitry in his brain are (were) simply dormant or malfunctioning, hers were not even close to intact.

It's great that this poor guy and his family experienced a miracle, but we have to keep it in perspective, such a miracle would not have been possible for many comatose people... to put it another way, you can't jumpstart an engine that's already been scrapped for parts.

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